Assembly Dems still Sorting out Speaker Replacement

Assembly Democrats might disagree on the reasoning, but after they emerged from a six-hour conference lasting late into Monday night one thing was clear: Sheldon Silver would be asked to resign as speaker—at least for now.

Representatives were sent to Silver to express that the majority wants him to step down—with some members supporting the option that if he is acquitted of his charges, he can return to his post.

“I think it has been conveyed to him that the members of the conference believe the appropriate thing to do is for him to resign his speakership,” Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh said. “Many of us feel that if the speaker does not make that decision [to resign] he should understand that he has lost the confidence of the majority of our conference.”

Assemblyman Peter Abbate Jr. disagreed with Kavanagh’s analysis and said the idea that the conference has lost confidence in the speaker is “unbelievable.”

“The feeling was he couldn’t do both, it was nothing about confidence,” Abbate said. “Shelly is one of the brightest men and has done more for the state and people.”

Silver assumed a defiant stance after the conference, telling reporters, "I have not told anyone that I am resigning." But if the speaker indeed refuses to step aside, Kavanagh believes they have enough votes to remove him.

Sources inside the conference told City & State that around 90 percent of the Democratic Assembly members are in support of asking Silver to resign his post. 

Multiple Assembly members also said the suggestion of a five-member leadership appointed by Silver was officially off the table and that the Assembly would follow house rules in replacing the speaker. According to those rules, if Silver resigns from his post, the Assembly majority leader, Joe Morelle, will become the acting speaker until a new one is voted on during an Assembly floor meeting.

No one would speculate at this time about who might step up to replace the speaker and Kavanagh did not expect there to be a vote on the issue tomorrow.

In the wake of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's combined State of the State and budget address last week, a leader will be needed in the Assembly to engage in the “three men in a room” budget negotiation process with the Senate majority leader and the governor.

“It is important from my perspective and many others that there be a process that permits a deliberation, that permits potential speakers to articulate their point of view of how this chamber should be run and that a consensus emerge from that and of course everyone is concerned that happen promptly—that there not be a very long period of drift,” Kavanagh told reporters.

“We need to make sure that somebody leading this conference is somebody who is able to live up to those aspirations as a leader and as much as people have a great deal of personal sympathy, that the conference needs to make sure we have a leader that can lead,” he said.

The Assembly Democrats will reconvene at 12 p.m. tomorrow to conference again. In the words of U.S. District Attorney Preet Bharara, stay tuned.